Water fountains and devices displaying fire have long been treasured individually for their decorative and entertaining qualities. Fountains ranging in size from a small desktop display with a trickle of water to a large sculpted work of art spraying hundreds of gallons of water have been admired and sought after for hundreds of years. Likewise, the captivating and artistic nature of fire in the form of the home fireplace, an outdoor fire pit, or even the group bonfire has long been a central part of modern décor long after the functional values of such devices where superseded by technology.
The contrast between fire and water could not be more apparent and their combination has often been used in artistic renderings. The effective introduction of fire to a water fountain is not, however, a simple task and has long remained a technical challenge. Previous attempts to display fire and water in the same device have been attained by limiting or preventing any interaction between the flames and water. Normally, any apparent interaction of the two elements is through creative designs capitalizing on an observer's lack of depth perception to seemingly show that the flames and streams of water are interacting when in reality they are completely separate. One example of such a device is a fireplace and water fountain combination described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,312. While such illusions can be very intricate, they remain illusions that cannot display the true effects of a fountain's water interacting with a ring of fire.
In the drawings, the same reference numbers identify identical or substantially similar elements.